1854: Lieutenants Bourchier and Cunninghame of the Rifle Brigade, and Lieutenant Lennox of the Royal Engineers, won the Victoria Cross during a successful night attack on Russian positions at Sevastopol.

1863: During the Third New Zealand War, Lieutenant General Sir Duncan Cameron led some 1,300 men in an assault on the Maori pa (a stockaded fort) at Rangiriri. The outworks were taken, but successive attacks failed to breach the main defences, although the Maori defenders escaped or surrendered having exhausted their ammunition. Lieutenant Pickard and Assistant Surgeon Temple of the Royal Artillery braved intense fire to go to the aid of wounded men, Pickard repeatedly fetching water while Temple looked to their wounds. Both received the Victoria Cross.

1914: Bandsman Rendle of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry was awarded the Victoria Cross for his tireless aid to the wounded amidst a heavy artillery barrage, including digging several men out when they were buried alive by collapsing trench parapets.

1917: The first use of massed tanks was made during the offensive at Cambrai. 378 combat tanks and 98 supply tanks were used to spearhead the attack by Byng's Third Army. Probably even more important than the use of tanks, however, was the improvement in artillery fire control techniques which allowed an accurate surprise barrage to be fired without the need for ranging shots beforehand, which normally signalled to the enemy the probability of an offensive operation.

Spectacular initial gains were made, an advance of 9,500 yards being achieved with only 1,500 casualties - equivalent to all the progress made over three months and with 400,000 casualties during Third Ypres. However, the poor endurance of the early tanks - crew conditions inside the vehicles were appalling, with temperatures reaching 125 Fahrenheit and carbon monoxide poisoning from the engine - the lack of adequate follow-on reserves, and the swift arrival of German reinforcements combined to prevent a true breakthrough from being achieved.

Victoria Crosses won included:

Lance Corporal McBeath of the Seaforth Highlanders managed to capture a machine-gun battery and dug-out, taking 33 prisoners.

Captain Wain of the Tank Corps, badly injured when his tank was knocked out by a direct hit, refused medical assistance andsuccessfully charged the German position with a Lewis Gun. He then continued to attack with a rifle, until killed by a head wound.

Lieutenant Colonel Sherwood-Kelly, commanding a battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, distinguished himself leading an attackacross a canal and then charging five machine-guns.
Sergeant Spackman of the Border Regiment singlehandedly wiped out a machine-gun position that was holding up the advance.

Lieutenant Strachan of the Fort Garry Horse led a cavalry charge through machine-gun fire to attack an artillery battery, himself killing seven opponents with his sabre.

Private Shepherd of the King's Royal Rifle Corps ignored an order to stay under cover and rushed a machine-gun that had pinned downhis company, knocking it out with a hand grenade. Later, after all the officers and NCOs in the company had been killed or wounded,Shepherd took command of the unit, ran back to summon a tank, then led the company forward under its cover to take their objective.

Lieutenant Wallace assumed command of his artillery battery when the commander was killed during the German counter-attack. Surrounded by enemy infantry, and with only a few men left, he positioned the guns close together so that the surviving crews could run between the weapons and keep them all in action. He kept the battery in action for eight hours until infantry were able to relieve them.

1942: The desperate situation on Malta, where the daily ration had fallen to starvation level, was finally ameliorated by the successful arrival of a convoy under Operation Stone Age, delivering vital food supplies to Grand Harbour. The four merchantmen reached the port safely, although one of their escorts, the cruiser HMS Arethusa, had been severely damaged by a torpedo bomber.

1968: HMAS Sydney disembarked the 9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, at Vung Tau, Vietnam.